PFLEGER CALLS FOR AMNESTY ON STUDENT LOANS

PFLEGER CALLS FOR AMNESTY ON STUDENT LOANS

By Chinta Strausberg

If under President George W. Bush’s administration, the federal government can approve a whopping $8.5 trillion in bailout funds to rescue failing banks and financial institutions, then Father Michael L. Pfleger Tuesday said it’s time for a federally sponsored amnesty student loan program needed to save and expand our student population.

Bush signed the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 that authorizes the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury to payout $700 billion to bail out distressed banks, both domestic and foreign, AIG, Federal Express, and other financial institutions while our students are having their wages garnished for non or late payments.

I hope that President Barack Obama will extend that Act to including bailing out students who are financially strapped due to federal demands to repay their loans at huge amounts and at high interests rates—a double whammy for our children who simply want to become our leaders of tomorrow.

Perturbed by the issuing of taxpayers dollars to bailout the wealthy, who made bad financial choices, Pfleger said the government needs to step up and come to the rescue of students who after taking out loans to get their degrees are being forced to make high payments with equally high interest rates sometimes for more than two decades.

“I believe the federal government should forgive part of the loan,” said Pfleger who heads the Saint Sabina church. “The students should pay some of the loans back, but often times these payments are so big it makes it difficult for students to repay them.

“It also serves as a disincentive to other students who may not go on to college fearing they too will get trapped in the student loan” circle of financial pain that keeps many in a cycle of fiscal anxiety. And, sometimes students simply drop out of college because of the high payments. The student loan pay back formula goes against the grain of the American dream.

That is why Pfleger is calling for an amnesty because many students “simply can’t get caught up” with their payments. “It’s shackling these young people while discouraging others from staying in college.”

Pfleger wants the government to charge the students based on the jobs they currently have. If students are working at a community social or community development organization, their payments should reflect what they actually make.

Pastor Pfleger is absolutely correct. Putting fiscal handcuffs on students serves no good purpose; in fact it flies in the face of helping them graduate because it keeps them in poverty until their high interest loans and payments are paid. The trickle-down effect of this vicious fiscal cycle is that it hurts their families and their communities, which also impacts the national budget.

I personally know of two cases—one involving a young mother of three, who worked three jobs, is a wife; yet she earned her master’s degree in occupational therapy. She owes the federal government $60,000 and is struggling to make ends meet.

Her brother, a father of one, owes the federal government $40,000. He is still looking for a job, but he’s harassed several times a week by collectors demanding a payment of $500 a month towards his student loan. He has stopped answering the phone but hasn’t given up finding a job.

I am hoping that lawmakers and civil rights activists hear the cries of Father Pfleger and others and revise the student loan rules and regulations. Students need an economic bailout too just like Wall Street where CEO’s walk away with golden parachutes worth up to $15 million, $20 million and sometimes more.

Something is very wrong with that picture and caught in the crossfire’s of financial inequity are our students, our leaders for tomorrow.

Take the politics out of the economic stimulus package and put the people first—those like our students who live on Main Street, not Wall Street.

And, for those lawmakers who are allergic to assisting those who are less fortunate and others who forget from whence they come, then expand the Financial Aid’s Public Service Loan Forgiveness Act and come up with a plan that wipes out student loans if they commit to doing volunteer work.

I would oppose programs that give options of joining the military, but offering them teaching positions for a certain number of years would help them to academically grow another generation while freeing them from the onerous loans that are stifling their goals of being successful.

There is precedent for these forgiveness programs such as agreeing to become teachers in certain poverty areas, doctors, military personnel, Peace Corp, Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) to name a few. The federal government needs to include all students in this forgiveness program because it benefits not just the students but it expands the nation’s economy too.

It makes financial sense to reform these student loan rules. Why punish our best and brightest while giving away more than $1 trillion in welfare to corporate America? Where is the fairness in that? Where is the justice for struggling students?

Student loans place our leaders of tomorrow in a Catch-22 position—damned if they do go to school, and damned if they don’t. Either way, under the current student loan rules, they graduate but with a federal foot on their necks—blocking their privilege of earning a decent living because of draconian payments that if not maintained also ruin their credit and their future.

Thank God we have a new President, Barack Obama, who is concerned about the least of thee and who has the vision and wisdom to reach back and help those who are not a part of the nations wealthy. I hope you write and/or call President Obama and your lawmakers and make your wishes known. Our nation cannot grow if our children are kept behind an archaic student loan payment system that punishes rather than rewards their achievements.

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